Northwest Side man dies day after being punched to sidewalk in fight

A 58-year-old Albany Park man died this morning, a day after he was knocked to the ground in a fight on the street outside a restaurant blocks from his house, authorities said.

Celestino Nuevo, of the 4900 block of North Kimball Avenue, was pronounced dead at 9:35 a.m. at Swedish Covenant Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Officers originally had been called to the hospital early Sunday, after Nuevo was the victim of an attack as he left a restaurant about 2 a.m. Sunday in the 3500 block of West Lawrence Avenue, police said.

Nuevo was leaving the restaurant and got into a “verbal altercation” with someone on the street who then punched him, apparently knocking him to the sidewalk, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Darryl Baety.

The victim suffered bone fractures on the right side of his face, severe brain bleeding and swelling, according to police.

Police did not have any records indicating why the fight might have started.